After an eventful 2007 the F1 season has already started the busy off-season. They've already had the first pre-season test, and the drivers merry-go-round has been kicked into the highest gear.

The worst kept secret in sport came out when Fernando Alonso, left McLaren - a team he's fallen out of with so badly his face is probably on the cafeteria dartboard - for Renault, the team he scored both his world driver's titles with, to join GP2 and test driving graduate Nelson Piquet jr . To greet them the French marque has agreed to increase funding (although this may just be Alonso's wages, and to pay for the extra motorhome for his ego) to try to improve on last season's disappointing performance when veteran underperformer Giancarlo Fisichella and rookie Heikki Kovalainen combined for 3rd in the Constructors race (remember McLaren were disqualified, so realistically this is 4th) and only a handful of podium places.

The exodus of the old Renault pair looks set to be the main source of headlines so far, with Fisichella joining the open auditions for the new Force India team. However, Kovalainen has gone onto much better things. He's joined McLaren. And now he thinks he's Lewis Hamilton. He says he is 'confident' of the team treating him as an with Hamilton.  This is pretty unlikely, especially because of 2007. Hamilton will be the undisputed number 1 in that team, not only because of last years results, but because his Ron Dennis' pet project. However, I fear if he does. This question of equality is one of the main reasons for the Alonso bust up, as Hamilton was elevated above his real status.

Also the FIA have the decision on whether any of the technology McLaren stole from Ferrari has been incorporated into their 2008 car. Obviously the internal workings of an F1 car are massively complicated but I wonder how much can realistically be that different in the era of identikit cars, when they pretty much all look the same. Perhaps McLaren should be working on a 6 wheeled-car to escape any accusations??